The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-27

procession from church on taste
Sunday lock like st. Patrick's Da
parade.
Some of our high society got cd,
instruction and amusement iron
May Fortescue. the English actres
and sentimental plaintiff, just befor
her departure this week for home
She is a beauty, be it understood
and her clearly lawsuit against Lor,
Garmoyle has forced her into fash
ionable consideration. She may hav,
failed, as they assert, in her profes
sional tour of America, but her posi-
lively last appearance before an au
dience was a triumph. Bernhard
is playing here. She freakishly in
sists upon making the intermission,
between acts half an hour long. The
people resent this trifling and Man.
ager Abbey is seriously annoyed, be
cause it hurts the business. Fortes
cue has been under his direction
too. She told him that she wished
TO see the great Frenchwoman act.
I'll give you a box, he said, "if
you will wear good clothes, look your
prettiest aud sit at the front, so that
the audience will have something to
divert them during the long waits. F"
It's bargain" replied FOrtes.
cue. I'll agree to entertain the peo-
pie 'twixt acts.
She did, with a vengeance. She
wore white fluffy, aud carried an
immense fan Of the same color. That
made her conspicuous, for it is not
the custom in New York to don such
clothes for the drama, though it is
done deliberately at the opera. She
scatter herself at the front of lower
prosceuium box, facing the audience,
and proceeded to impersonate vi
vacious, ingenious maiden. 1t was
as bold an undertaking as anybody
ever saw in theater; it was a marvel
Of demonstrative pantomime, pictur-
esque poses, and extra yagant gesticu-
lation alternated. A bevy of fellows
supported her tabelaux, and the
amazed and amused spectators found
that the tedium of the half hour in
tervals was beguiled. But it would
be pity if the young girls present
were to take pattern of ForteScue
and behave 10 that extraordinary
fashion at the theater.
The efforts of mankind will never
bring about the abolition of the hat
in the theater. There are number
less reasons, each more potent than
the first, why the idea is impractical,
BILE. Those women whom Washing
ton Bishop styles carriage people"
will take kindly enough, as they al
ways have done, to the fashion. But
the great majority who patronize the
elevated roads and the street cars
will never yield. Bonnets that have
been adjusted with infinite care and
patience are not going to be twitched
off and surrendered to the tender
mercy Of the dressing room attendant
to be tisketed and jammed on shelves.
Then think of the rush and crush to
recover your property, with an impa-
tient husband, or the other fellow,
cooling his heels outside while you
frantically struggle for an inch of the
looking glass to see whether your hat
is cooked on four hairs or quite off
your head. Why, the thought is
preposterous. But the one grand
reason is this: Like the man who was
accused of owning a cannibal of o
dog, he claimed his dog couldn't
have bitten anyone because his teeth
we're gone, because he was amiable,
because he was tied up, and because
he never had dog. So, after all the
small reasons come in, the weightiest
is that in the present style of wOm-
ans dress she can no more put on
her hat with her corsage buttoned,
or take it off, than she can stand on
her head. The next article that
goes on a lady after her skirts is in
variably her bonnet. After a dress
waist is buttoned you can no more
put your hands 20 your head than a
trussed turkey can scratch its wish
bone. The poky little dressing room
of a theater would have to be an un-
dressing room of immense capacity
to enable a manager to enjoy bare
headed audience. The only women
in favor of the innovation are the
wardrobe women. What heavenly
time they would have trying on
hats No, dear men, your superior
scientific attainments level tremen-
dous distractions; the rocks on Man
haitian Island hide their diminished
heads; vast forests fall at your com
mand; the flags of your enemies lie
in the dust; great opposing forces
that rear themselves against you
give way; but the hat of woman
proudly haunts at the mast head and
it will fly there till the end. Will
lam the Bald and John the Baldest |
will have to take their glimpses OF |
Mile. Passuels' tantalizing toes
through the waving feathers of Ma
tilda's bonnet and the meshes of
millinery. Women will
never sit bareheaded and expose
their well matched locks to such |
hairpins as the the dear men, while
they have an ounce Of sense in their
noodles. CLARA BELLE,